WHO YA WITH!??!?!?

While we froze our asses off (seriously I think I left my right cheek attached to the seat at LP stadium) it was totally worth it. We saw Vandy in it's first bowl appearance since the Regan era and its first win in 50 some odd years. Santa (aka Keith and Susanna) gave us awesome seats for Christmas (thanks Santa you are the BEST). It was the best New Year's in a forever even though Raif has lost his voice from screaming and I am still frozen solid. I don't know whether we are going to make it to midnight but it was definitely one of the most memorable New Years in a long time. Happy New Years to all and Go Dores!!!

A true Quincess....

An Erim Christmas

Well, we had a very Merry Christmas this year. I was quite excited because for the first time both kids understood about Santa (well sort of) and both were more interested in the presents than the wrapping paper and the boxes. Santa was very good to all of us as you can tell. The funniest part of the day was watching the kids in complete ADD mode. They had so many new things to play with that they would play with one thing for like one minute and then see another and have to play with that. By the time I got a toy out of its box it was on to something new. Here are a couple of pics from the holiday. You can see lots more at Raif's smugmug page:

http://sailrace.smugmug.com/gallery/6942279_ngAF3#P-1-15

Before the chaos.....
During the chaos....

The puppies relaxing by the fire after a meal of lobster (yes they had some too) and a nice rawhide bone.

Heard around the House...

I thought I would take a week and compile some of the things that are said around our house. I will leave it to you to determine whether I or the children said it. I hope you enjoy a little taste of life in the Erim house.

Mommy, I lost my pee.

We are smushing our strawberries to make orange juice.

Get your head out of the toilet. I promise you your poop is still there. It is just hiding behind the toilet paper.

We are playing nicely. Now go away.

I want to hug my fishsticks.

I have a nose boogie. Want to eat it?

Now you push me down.

I bit my teeth.

I am going to cut your toes off and put them on my pizza.

The rule in this house is that you only flush your own pee.

Do we jump on the bed?
No.
What do we jump on?
Quinn

He's an Erim.....

Proof that Greyson is an Erim (if you had any doubt) - tonight for dinner he insisted on his filet mignon with bordelaise sauce be finished off with fresh chopped parsley. Gotta love that kid!!

Seinfeld-esque observation

We changed garbage companies this month and I was signing up on-line to pay the bill. The last thing before I hit the sign-up button was this small check box that ask me if I wanted to receive special offers via e-mail. Really? Special offers on weekly garbage pick-up???? I can't even fathom what this would be.

Feeling Old

Last night our babysitter/teenage neighbor came over to have me help her with her algebra. After we finished with her homework we somehow got on the subject of cell phones (probably because I got a new one). Then we started talking about old time cell phones and I tried to explain to her the old bag phones of the 80's and the really big phones with the antenna that were like 5 inches long. She looked at me and said "Wow, those must have been hard to text on." After I informed her texting didn't exist back then she looked at me with this incredulous look. "Really? How did you survive." I was about to start talking about how we didn't have internet back in the day and no cable TV but thought better of it. You are officially old when you start a sentence with "When I was your age....."

Raising a Polite Child in a Rude World

OK, so I had a very frustrating day today and need to vent a little. Before I start this story I will admit that when it comes to manners and such I know I am definitely on the more side rather than the less. I had very proper parents and grandparents who expected pleases, and thank yous and ma'am and sirs and that is how I am bringing up my children. I know the world is not going to be as zealous as I am but I think that children (and their parents) have to have SOME manners.

I took Quinn to the local library for storytime this morning. With the exception of Greyson she doesn't get a lot of interaction with other children so I thought this might be a nice experience for her. I was wrong. I have never been in a room with so many rude people. We sat down and started playing with some toys that were set out before the program began. This one little boy just came over and grabbed Quinn's toys right out of her hand - his mother did nothing. Then when they were sitting around the storylady this other little boy started shoving all the children out of his way which lead to this domino effect of children falling over. Again Mom nowhere in sight. Some little girl knocked Quinn down to run up and get some bells to sing jingle bells with.

Part of the storytime they have a little puppet show where the kids crowd around this plastic fence and behind the fence is a little stage and a little puppet comes out to talk to the children. First of all all the children were hanging on the fence and one of the kids broke it. Second, apparently all the Moms know each other because they were all sitting down and jabbering behind the children so much that I couldn't even hear what the puppet was saying - neither could Quinn because she kept asking me what the little pig was saying. Finally at the end Quinn was the only one who said Thank You. I was apalled.

Do I expect two year olds to act perfectly all the time? Absolutely not - I know mine doesn't. But I expect their parents to act with manners and teach their children the same. If Quinn had stolen a toy or shoved another kid I would have been there in a second to let her know that isn't OK and have her apologize.

So am I asking too much? Am I too old fashioned? I am debating on whether to go back again because those children were so horrid but I know the interaction would in theory be good for Quinn. Argh.

Puppy Love

Birds

Has anyone ever seen the movie The Birds? It is a 1950s-1960s movie done by Hitchcock about these birds that attack the citizens of this small town. It is really creepy. Anyway, a couple of months ago we put a bird feeder up on the deck and we have had tons of birds come and it has been quite fun for both me and the kids. This morning I looked out and noticed the feeder was empty and realized I had no more to fill it up. Right now I am looking out on my deck to see no less than seven birds sitting on our railing just staring into the house. It is kind of freaky. Apparently they are hungry. So before they come and peck my eyes out I suppose I will go to the bird store and get more food.

Oops...

We came home to find this in our backyard. We are assuming that the weight of the snow and the ice did this. Luckily no one was hurt as the dogs love this spot in the backyard. Any bets as to how long this tree stays like this - anyone, anyone.

Weekend Getaway

This last weekend Raif's company had a holiday retreat/getaway to The Grove Park Inn in Asheville North Carolina. When I first heard about this I thought this place is going to be empty because who the hell vacations two weeks before Christmas - the answer is everyone in NC. The place was packed. It was a beautiful old resort reminding me (I am showing my age a bit) the hotel in Dirty Dancing. They had an enormous fireplace and Christmas trees everywhere and apparently hold a national gingerbread house competition every year. While I think we would have had more fun in the summer (the mountain activities are geared more towards nature and I just wasn't willing to spend the morning at the outdoor nature preserve in 40 degree weather) we had a good time wandering around Asheville. There was a band each night and the kids danced to the music and had fun looking at all the Christmas decorations. Here are a couple of pictures from our weekend. If you are interested in looking at more (especially to see the gingerbread houses because some of them were AMAZING) you can go to Raif's smugmug page here....

http://sailrace.smugmug.com/gallery/6841277_RJZot#437353875_25L5c

The view of the back of our hotelNow that is a fireplace...

Damn my children have rhythm.

Let It Snow

We got 3 inches of snow last Thursday night. We couldn't get our cars up the hill on our driveway so Friday was a snow day for the whole family. Grandma and Grandpa thankfully had bought the kids snowsuits for Christmas in preparation for our February ski trip and so we busted those out a bit early (thanks Grandma). We spent the morning making snowballs and learning that ice is slippery. Raif taught the kids to eat snow which they then proceeded to do later in the day in the local Chili's parking lot. Sweet. Greyson wanted to ride his trike on the ice but settled on attempting to clean it all up with a broom.

Winter Wonderland

It snowed in Nashville! We got our first snow of the season tonight and it was a doozy (at least by Southern standards). It started right about rush hour when both Raif and I were trying to get home. Two hours for me and the kids and over an hour for him. And actually Raif's car didn't make it home - he couldn't get up the hill in our neighborhood and he had to leave it at the community pool's parking lot and hitch a ride with me. I took these pics tonight because generally snow doesn't stay long around here so sorry if they aren't the best. The kids got to see the snow from the car but after 2 hours of driving in it and and hour and a half past dinner and bed that was all they were going to see. I am hoping it stay around long enough tomorrow morning for them to play in it.

Holiday Pet Peeve

OK - first if I insult you with this blog I apologize but I have to get this off my chest.

I am a big Christmas person. I love the holiday (I mean I actually listen to the Christmas radio station in the car) and I think everyone should deck the halls and get into the spirit. I love decorations both inside and out. While some might call it tacky (you know who you are) we even have the inflatables at our house that the children adore. Here is my pet peeve - if you are going to decorate you need to keep a theme and keep your themes separate. Example: my neighbor has just put up his decorations which include a nativity scene right next to Santa on a choo-choo train. Perhaps I missed that Sunday School class when I was young but I don't remember Santa puffing in to Jesus' birth on a lighted train. Perhaps he has the 3 wise men in a back compartment, but I doubt it. Nor do I think penguins in hats and gloves migrated down to Bethlehem those many years ago to play in the manger. Nativity scenes do not go with your festive holiday animals, snowmen and Santas. I don't care how you decorate - nativity v. festive holiday charm - just don't mix and match.

O' Christmas Tree

Christmas has finally arrived at the Erim house. Today Raif and I decided to take a chance and we took the kids to cut down this year's Christmas tree. I couldn't decide whether the adventure would turn out to be a cherised holiday memory or a big giant disaster. Remarkably it went really well. The kids loved walking around the Christmas tree farm and picking out the tree.
Greyson and Quinn inspected all the prospective trees.
Then carefully supervised the menial laborer.
All the sawing finally paid off.
While the Farm tied the tree to the car we enjoyed some hot cocoa.
The finished product!! The kids weren't very interested in actually decorating tree but rather fighting over who held the ornaments so Raif and I put the ornaments on after the kids went to bed. All in all, a very good day and considering we participated in an event with a hand saw and we all still have ten fingers I'd say we did really well.

Backseat Words of Wisdom

Yesterday morning I was driving Greyson to school when it started to rain, which of course meant that everyone had to slam on their brakes on the highway. As we were crawling along at a roaring 5 mph, Greyson pipes up in the back seat "Go faster Mommy." I told him I couldn't because there was all this traffic in front of me. "Mommy," Greyson sighed "there are idiots everywhere."

And the Oscar goes to....

We were out playing on the driveway when Greyson fell down and skinned his hand. It was bleeding a tad and so I offered to get him a band-aid. Quinn piped up that she wanted one too and I told her that she didn't need one because she hadn't fallen. So, Quinn then proceeds to carefully lie down on the driveway and start this quite realistic crying jag and in between sobs informs me that she fell down and needed a band-aid. I hear Hollywood calling.

Who Ya With?!?!

In our continued quest to turn our children into sports fanatics we took them to their first basketball game: Vandy v. MTSU. My parents (who are basketball fans in their own right) were in town and were happy to come along. And we even ran into some friends randomly at the game - Brent Hefty and his girlfriend Erin. We had great seats and the kids, as always, had a blast. The only exception was that Greyson was terrified of the giant pickle that was giving away shirts at halftime - go figure. Here are some pics from the game.

Greyson wouldn't stand on the floor because the pickle was still there, at least we got a picture of him not terrified.
This is how a real lady eat popcorn.

What everyone wants for Christmas

In case you are wondering - yes these are pee and poop stuffed animals, yes you can purchase them on Amazon.com for a mere $40 and NO my kids don't need them.

What a Feeling...

Raif and I have been lucky enough to be invited to an '80s party tonight (I know you're jealous) - appropriate attire required. I actually found some legwarmers at Target for the event. Quinn found them tonight and insisted on wearing them. I just don't understand why this trend went out of style.

Gobble, Gobble

The kids made Thanksgiving turkeys today and were so proud of their creations that I thought I should post them for everyone to enjoy. Happy Thanksgiving.

A Close Call (and heads up to you other mothers)

I brought the kids home from picking up Greyson from school, put the dogs outside and realized I had left Greyson's backpack in the car so went into the garage to get it and heard the door slam, the door lock and hysterical giggles from inside the house. I banged on the door for a couple minutes but to no avail as my children thought it was hysterical that they had locked me out. Thankfully I had let the dogs out earlier and so the back door was unlocked so I got into the house that way. Had I not let the dogs out I would have been at the mercy of my children; cold and trapped in the garage. I have a feeling we are going to Home Depot tomorrow and getting a hide-a-key for the outside.

This house is a ZOO

One small step for man....

One giant step for Quinn. This evening was the first use of the potty. Hip, hip hooray!! (Wow when you become a parent what things excite you, huh?). Now after having just potty trained Greyson I realize the arduous journey between first potty and potty trained is a long one but I can dream of a diaper free life can't I?

Drunk Pin the Tail on the Donkey

I was watching the GA/Auburn game (sorry Ash!) this afternoon when I saw the most random commercial. It was for a "Sedan Service" here in Nashville. It showed this couple out to dinner and then out for drinks and then showed them driving by (in the sedan service) a man getting pulled over for an apparent DUI. Then it talks about having a sober drive yadi, yadi, yada. But then it flashes up all the events that the service is good for - "Special Nights Out", "Weddings" and then "Children's Birthday Parties." Really? Are there enough people getting wasted at kid's birthday parties out there that they need a car service to take their drunk asses home? Apparently my children are not being invited to the right parties.

Fall Adventures

The kids and I spent this afternoon hiking through the woods behind our house and through our neighborhood collecting beautiful fall leaves. We then came home and warmed ourselves up with hot apple cider and animal crackers. I have no idea what to do with all these leaves now so if anyone who is remotely crafty out there has any ideas please let me know!!

Anyone got a bar of soap?

There are many things I thought/hoped my son would be: the smart one, the funny one, the kind one. He has other ideas and now has become - the kid with the foul mouth.

As you may recall a couple of blogs ago - we took Greyson to a hockey game where he learned how to cheer "You Suck." He said it once or twice since then but forgot about it, or so I thought. Well today as the whole class sang Happy Birthday to Mr. Shaune his teacher, Greyson ended the song with a rousing "Mr. Shaune You Suck!" Then this afternoon as I was talking to his teachers and learned that Mr. Shaune was going to the Vandy football game this weekend I had Greyson cheering "Go Dores" just as another mother and her son walked by. Well Greyson kindly informed Finn's Mom that when you go to a football game you say "Go Dores" and when you go to a hockey game you say "You Suck." I tried to correct him and say something like "Greyson you are suppose to say "You Duck" but to no avail. He corrected me and said "No Mommy it is you suck." Oy vey.

Isn't it ironic (don't you think)

My mother got the kids their own monogrammed suitcases for Christmas and they arrived today. (I know she shops insanely early.) The UPS man arrived right before I left to pick up Greyson from school and I forgot to hide them when I got back. They found the non-descript boxes this afternoon and guess what they pretended they were - you guessed it, suitcases. We pushed them all around the house as they went in the car and on a plane. There is no way they could have known what was inside. Perhaps my children have ESP???

Quinn's Secret

I was getting dressed, (with Quinn's help of course) when she scurried into the bathroom and came out with wearing this....
She called it her bra and insisted on wearing it around all morning. Growing up way too fast....

The Rapping Granny

OK, I realize that this week I have had diarrhea of the blog but I just couldn't resist one more.

According to our wonderful local newspaper, the Nolensville Dispatch, we have a national celebrity in our midst. Olivia Haley has just been crowned Ms. Senior America after a national competition in Atlantic City. Ms. Haley's talent was rapping (I couldn't make this up if I tried people). She rapped an original composition titled "Granny Loves Ya." She will be touring the US over the next year educating America on senior's issues so she may come to a town near you.

Do you think Ms. Senior America has a swimsuit competion????

It's the little things....

Ever since Quinn was old enough to roll over and move in bed she has slept like this - up in the corner of her bed with her hand through the rail. I don't know why, but to me, this is one of the most endearing things she does. I know that someday when we get her a big girl bed she won't be able to do this anymore so I thought I would capture the moment for posterity.

My One and Only Political Blog

For the longest time most of my friends have been commenting to me how interesting they find it that I haven't said anything about the election on this blog. I mean, you spend approximately two minutes in a conversation with me and I can somehow turn it to politics - talking about how Greyson needs health insurance or about how we need to save the planet. Frankly, I haven't said anything because my husband politely asked me not to. He wanted to make sure at the end of all this that our conservative friends were still out conservative friends.

But I wanted to say something (two things actually). The first being a olive branch of sorts from the liberals to all of you conservatives out there. I know y'all are pissed and disappointed right now. Believe me, if Obama had lost I would have been mad at Raif and I would have spent the next few weeks talking about packing up the family and taking advantage of his EU citizenship and moving to Europe. And I don't expect your disappointment to end anytime soon. That being said I also hope that you can give us liberals a chance and try to come into the next few years with an open mind and some patience. The US is pretty screwed up right about now and it will take all of us together to put it back on track - it might not be the perfect track for everyone but hopefully it will move in a general direction that everyone can live with.

The second thing - regardless of your political views I think we should all take a second to realize what a moment we lived through last night, in the election of the first African-American President. Last week I was talking to Ms. Tina, Greyson's preschool teacher, and she was telling me that they were doing an excercise in class about different and same. They were asking various children things that were different and same including each other. It made my heart skip a beat when she told me that Greyson thought he was the same as his friend Johannes- even though Johannes is African-American. I hope yesterday was a big step in the right direction for race relations in this country.

OK, enough about the election. Although, I will admit that the gleeful liberal inside of me is going to listen to Sean Hannity cry on his radio show this afternoon as I go to pick up Greyson!!

The BEST in Atlanta

What can I say about Jon Whitaker? Well, he has been doing our (first Raif and I and now the kids) hair for a little under a decade. Over the years he has transformed from our stylist to a dear friend. When Greyson was in the hospital and I couldn't leave the house he started coming over and taking time on his days off to cut our hair. And even when we moved to Nashville 3 1/2 hours away he stills comes up every 6 weeks or so to visit, play with the kids and keep us stylish.

A month or so ago, Jon left VanMichael in Atlanta and opened up his own salon in Virginia Highlands - JonDavid Salons. It is AMAZING. While we were in Atlanta last weekend we got the opportunity to visit and of course get our hair done. For all of our friends in Atlanta - if you are ever in need of a new stylist check Jon out. I promise you, you won't be disappointed.

JonDavid Salons 404-524-9241
The finished product - don't they look great!!!

GA/FL game

One happy Gator girl.....

Young love.

Corrupting the Tuck youth while Andy was sick - I think he would approve though.

OK, just to get this out of the way: FLORIDA SUCKS!! Now on to bigger and better things.

This last weekend we went down to Atlanta to spend Halloween with our friends and to go our friends Keith and Susanna's annual GA/FL party (aka The Second World's Largest Cocktail Party). Thankfully I spent most of the game running around after my children so I wasn't subjected to Georgia's humiliating ass-whooping.

It was a great party - we got to see all of our old neighbors and their respective children and got to see some old Vandy friends (thanks to the Tucks and Lindseys for making the effort to come out and see us). And Guinness and Cooper even got to play with an old doggie friend - Mayzie. Raif did his part to contribute to the delinquency of the minors by teaching them all how to play beer pong. I personally think Sam Tuck is a natural. If Georgia had won it would have been a perfect day but hey you can't get everything you want in life. I guess I have to wait til next year - that is if Keith and Susanna invite us back. For all of the pics go to Raif's smugmug account:

http://sailrace.smugmug.com/gallery/6462579_LtP2Y#P-1-15

Go Dawgs sic 'em Woof, woof, woof.

Happy Halloween

We spent Halloween in Atlanta this year and trick-or-treated in our old neighborhood. We had so much fun and it was so great to see everyone again. Raif, of course, took a lot of pictures - far too many to put on the blog so if you are interested in seeing the rest of them please visit Raif's smugmug site: http://sailrace.smugmug.com/gallery/6463544_8CpYU#409984358_oWjp3

Lil Punkin Parade

At Greyson's preschool they had a Lil Punkin Parade on Friday. All the kids dressed up and paraded around the Peabody Campus of Vanderbilt (their education college for those not intimately familiar with Vanderbilt). The faculty and students were great there - decorating buildings and handing out candy. Greyson had fun and got the hang of begging for treats very quickly. Of course 2 pictures in to the event and the battery died on my camera so my pics aren't that great but he had fun nonetheless.